June2013
www.tvbeurope.com
TVBEurope 31 Summer of Sports: OB Focus
direction it’s been fantastic; really solid,” he claims. He has got up to 2km with this technology, “but it’s an easy 500m, and if you know what you are doing you can double or triple the distance.” There are two models, with either HDMI or HD-SDI input, although “most of the market seems to want HDMI,” he says. At the low end, small Sony cameras seem to be popular, due to in-built lens stabilisation, while at the high end, cameras like Red’s Epic are ideal as its modular design makes it easier to reduce weight. The receiver has HD-SDI output, although Boxx can add HDMI output if needed. User choices, such as data rates and signal strengths, are configurable using web-based software running on a laptop connected by a Cat 5 cable. Although Walker says the Zenith Light is cheaper than rival broadcast links, at about £10,000 “it is only really applicable if you are going live to air. There are much cheaper systems for monitoring. This is for rock-solid pictures off the aircraft if you are broadcasting live.”
Up in the air There are a few key suppliers, notably DJI Innovations, as well as several production companies that also supply drones to others, often offering their own variations of the same platform. Zero Gravity Cameras is a production company that flies drones, and is using them for Le Mans Series motorsports this year, as well as a feature film and music events. It is also a dealer for SteadiDrone, which makes quad-, six- and eight- rotor drones to support anything from a GoPro to DSLRs and Red Epics (up to 6.8kg with its £6,800 octocopter), which its director, Rohan Tully, claims is “about £2-3,000 cheaper than anything else on the market.” It started
selling the systems “to have the support network behind us rather than relying on other companies.”
The small carbon fibre quadcopter, which costs £1,500 ready-to-fly and takes a GoPro, is capable of up to 100kph, includes full GPS waypoint navigation (to set up a route plan, including turning, heights and rate of climb), and can operate in winds of up to 30kph. A six-rotor drone costs £4,200, and supports up to 2kg (for example, a Sony Handycam or Canon 650D), and can be flown by two operators (a pilot and cameraman). It has 360º pan/tilt and “independently holds its course in relation to its subject.” Zero Gravity is also working on putting wireless follow-focus on the cameras, which Tully says hasn’t been done on drones yet. One of the biggest selling
drones is also the smallest: DJI Innovations’ £470 Phantom is designed for use with a GoPro and has been used for broadcast documentaries, including one for BBC3. For higher-end work, DJI’s S800 (octocopter) can carry a camera of about 1kg, plus batteries and links (for a total payload of about 7kg) and has been used for live HD streaming for Sky Sports, using a Panasonic GH3. It comes with an individual gimbal mount for a particular camera (Sony NEX-5 or -7, or GH2/GH3), plus its own control camera. Maximum flying time is about 13 minutes. It costs about £7,000 in kit form or £9,000 ready to fly. GPS waypoint (mapping up to 50 point) is an option, and if it loses the control signal it will automatically return to base (as will the Phantom). Top Gear has used four of them to follow cars around its track, while Sky Sports has used them for golf. It has also been used on many music videos,
Carbon fibre: Geoff Turner with one of Quadcopters’ range
and in the US it is often used for baseball. The BBC Natural History unit uses drones to avoid “the destructive impact [from the down force] of a full size helicopter, and the cost,” says Dave Hollins, DJI Innovations’ director for Europe. “It is ideal if you are going into a forest to film monkeys in a tree. For what you spend on a helicopter for half a day you can buy one [of its top-end octocopters].” Quadcopters sells a variety of
drones, from DJI and others. For high-end work, its director, Geoff Turner, recommends the compact SkyJib 8V2 octocopter, which costs about £10,000 and can carry a Red Epic, Canon C300 or 5DMkIII. It has a 360º stabilised gimbal that can be operated by a second cameraman. It also offers a full HD downlink with a range of about 80m. The 8V2 can fly for about nine minutes with a large camera, or 20 minutes with a small payload. Quadcopters has supplied drones for the BBC’s Earthflight and Penguins – Spy in the Huddle, as well as for various commercials. The Heliguy SkyJib octocopter
High flier: Zero Gravity’s Tully supplied drones for the BBC’s Earthflight
has “retractable landing gear, so you get a full 360º view,” says Heliguy sales manager Alex Prentice; it isn’t exactly the same as the Quadcopters’ version as it uses some of its own components. It sells about one a week, and about half of its sales go to broadcast use (the rest tend to be commercial users, or the likes of the fire brigade, who fit them with thermal imaging cameras). Heliguy has a range of drones from about £2,000 to £10,000, and its systems have been used on Big Brother, by Disney, and to film bees in Kenya for BBC Natural History.
www.boxx.tv www.dji-innovations.com www.extremefacilities.com www.heliguy.com www.quadcopters.co.uk www.zerogravitycameras.com
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